EMI says DRM-free music is selling well

Early sales indicate that DRM-free music is noticeably more popular than DRMed music, EMI senior VP Lauren Berkowitz recently told Bloomberg. The world's third-largest music label began selling its music without copyright protections last month through Apple's iTunes Store and reports back that sales have been "good."

Berkowitz said that sales of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon were up 350 percent in the week after iTunes Plus launched. That has since leveled off, but sales of the album are still up 272 percent since going DRM-free. As music industry blog Coolfer points out, digital sales for other EMI artists have risen as well, such as Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream (17 percent), Norah Jones' Come Away with Me (24 percent), and Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head (115 percent). During that same time period, CD sales for those same albums dropped by 15 percent, 33 percent, and 24 percent, respectively.

Although the iTunes Store was the first online store through which EMI sold its DRM-free tracks, Amazon recently said that it will also be selling DRM-free EMI songs through its newly-announced music store later this year. EMI has also struck deals with other online stores to sell its unprotected music, such as f.y.e. and 7digital.

The spike in sales can probably be at least partly attributed to the rush of users dying to upgrade their DRMed iTunes Music to the DRM-free versions upon initial release. However, EMI appears to be confident that its DRM-free music will continue to sell well, even after the initial excitement dies down. The other major music labels are rumored to be considering DRM-free music as well, but are taking a wait-and-see approach. Apple's Steve Jobs is also said to be putting heavy pressure on the remaining labels to follow EMI's lead. If EMI manages to maintain increased sales in its post-DRM world, though, Universal and Warner may in fact be tempted to drop the DRM sooner than later.